GOProud deflects criticism for hyping Trump

GOProud’s push for a Donald Trump write-in campaign at CPAC is striking some here as a pretty obvious attempt to get publicity and possibly endear the group to conference attendees.

But Chris Barron, the head of the Republican pro-gay rights group, said Friday that his organization’s support of Trump is not a media stunt, insisting instead that it is a way to show thanks for his support of the organization, whose attendence at CPAC has caused a great deal of controversy.

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“We asked Mr. Trump to come this year because we wanted to do something positive,” he told POLITICO. “The write-in Trump thing is our way of saying thank you to Mr. Trump.

“Mr. Trump delivered a barnburner of the speech,” Barron added. “Ninety percent of the conversations I heard last night were ‘can you believe Donald Trump was here?’ The reason we asked Trump to come here is because we wanted to do something good for CPAC.”

The GOProud chairman conceded that tying his group to Trump brings a bright spotlight, but contended that the move would help all of the groups at CPAC, not just GOProud.

“Of course bringing Donald Trump to anything is going to bring media attention,” he said. “It’s bringing media attention to GOPround, it’s bringing attention to CPAC, it’s bringing media attention to the conservative movement and it’s bring attention to the conservative issues that Mr. Trump talked about in his speech.